Whilst I don’t think this transfer signals that the club have handed Glasner the keys to the recruitment this summer, it’s a clear sign that he is heavily involved in the discussions - something that Nuno Espirito Santo made some noises about around this time last year.

Schlager, 28, represents a slight change in direction when it comes to permanent transfers from Forest. He’ll be the oldest outfield permanent signing since Chris Wood in the summer of 2023 - but he’ll arrive with significant experience under the new Head Coach.

After a busy summer starting all 4 games for Austria at this summer’s World Cup, Schlager will now make his first foray into English football.

What Type of Player Have Forest Signed?

Schlager arrives as an experienced midfielder, with almost 400 senior appearances across 4 different clubs and his nation. He has played in multiple different midfield roles, and in different systems too. As touched on above, perhaps most importantly he played under Oliver Glasner for his first 2 seasons at Wolfsburg.

Schlager was one of the first signings Wolfsburg made after Glasner took over at the club - although it is unclear how involved Glasner was in the deal, it certainly would make sense that this was “his” idea.

During his time in charge at LASK, Glasner came up against Schlager on 11 different occasions across 4 seasons, where he registered 4 assists. Despite LASK’s success in that period under Glasner, Schlager was on the losing side just twice, winning 6 of the meetings.

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We can see during Schlager’s 4 seasons at Leipzig he has a lot of experience in virtually every central midfield role. He’s played in midfield twos, midfield threes, as one of two holding midfielders, and even as the right-sided 10.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that there’s no visual above for the 2024/25 season. This is because Schlager missed virtually all of it due to his 2nd ACL injury of his career in May 2024, causing him to miss EURO 2024 - his return was delayed after a scan showed fluid around the knee and he managed only around 200 minutes that season.

That injury meant he’d now ruptured his ACL in both legs during his career. There’s no getting away from it, this is a worry from a Forest perspective. According to TransferMarkt, Schlager has missed 849 days with injuries during his career - totalling 147 games. On a more positive note however, he only missed 5 games for RB Leipzig last season.

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Glasner’s Preferred System

If you’ve read the previous parts in this series (and even if you haven’t!), you’ll be familiar by now that we’re all expecting the Austrian to set Forest up in a shape that will start with 3 centre backs, 2 wing backs, and 2 holding midfielders.

After that, it’s a little up in the air as to whether we’ll see him go with with the two “10s” behind a striker, one “10” behind two strikers, or maybe even 2 inverted wingers.

The Centre Backs

There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that Glasner’s preferred system suits Murillo almost perfectly. Playing on the left of the back 3, he’ll be given a licence to be a little bit higher on the ball and far more involved in Forest’s build up.

Remember, in my last piece & recently on an appearance on Forest Focus, I explained how Glasner’s LCB at Palace were more heavily involved in open play build up than any other centre back in the Premier League.

Murillo’s data profile matches up really well with Marc Guehi - Glasner’s preferred choice & captain until he was sold to Man City in the winter window. Guehi is a right footer, so with Murillo providing some real balance on that side of the pitch, he could be in for a big season in all phases of play.

If the club decide to keep hold of him, this is probably good news for Morato whenever he is on the field too. Believe it or not, in the second half of the season Morato was better than Murillo with the ball at his feet from a reliability standpoint. Like his fellow Brazilian, he has the ability to progress the ball accurately from his own half, and Glasner would like this part of his game.

In the middle, I think Nikola Milenkovic can be really suited to the central role in a back 3 as well. Although not as mobile as Maxence Lacroix (who played all of his game time as the middle centre back), it could be argued that Milenkovic commands the space around him a little better.

The Serbian had a poor season by his standards last time out - definitely not helped by the constant chopping and changing of personnel and tactics under four different head coaches. His data in a back 3 from the 2024/25 season is a decent match from a defensive viewpoint.

Where Milenkovic will need to adapt is on the ball - I wouldn’t worry too much about his data though as he was regularly asked to go long down the right channel, severely effecting his passing & carrying data. His possession numbers were far better at Fiorentina in both the 2022/23 & 2023/24 seasons.

For now at least, Jair Cunha is slotted in as the right sided centre back. I think he can definitely do play there and I’d be comfortable with him starting the season in that role, but for all his potential I think he would be the weak point in the back 3.

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What Positions Were Key in Glasner’s Build Up?

One player who I think will be really excited to work under Glasner, is Murillo. The idea of playing in a back 3 should really help bring out some of his fantastic attacking qualities, whilst giving him an extra safety net in numbers in the defensive line.

Why should he be excited though? Well, because the left sided centre back for Oliver Glasner was involved in a greater proportion of their build up to create chances than that position was for any other team in the Premier League.

Chadi Riad was involved in almost 40% of the expected goals that came from Crystal Palace’s open play attacks while he was on the pitch. His former captain Marc Guehi, whom he replaced after his January departure, was also ranked very highly in 4th position.

It’s interesting then to see the further to the right on the pitch we go as far as Palace’s central defenders were concerned, the less they were involved in the build up. This may very well have been an attempt to create overloads on the left, draw teams over to that side of the pitch, and then give some more space for the dangerous Daniel Munoz to cause havoc high on the right flank.

If we look at the position as a whole throughout the season (rather than the player), we again see the most prominent positions being very left-side heavy. RWB (normally Munoz) ranks 3rd, with the RDM in 4th, but then the other right-sided players don’t appear until 7th & 9th position.

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How Does Game State Affect Glasner’s Teams?

The first big difference last season between Oliver Glasner’s Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest last season, was the London sides’ ability to keep games within reach.

Crystal Palace matches had a scoreline within 1 goal for over 85% of game time last season - this ranked 7th in Premier League - this is largely due to Palace spending 53% of their season drawing, 3rd highest in the division.

Forest’s own percentage on keeping games in the balance was lower than 80%, and ranked 17th. This reflected Forest’s bipolar performances throughout the season, where they were almost equally as likely to get a multi-goal lead as they were to concede goals in quick succession.

This data paints a picture of a team who wants to keep the game close for as long as possible, the figure of 85% is actually a decrease from the 87% of the 2024/25 season - far higher again from Forest’s own figure of 79%. Interestingly, it’s also a massive increase on the figure of 67% Glasner oversaw during his final season at Frankfurt - during which the percentages for each different game state were all in the 30s.

Keeping the game in the balance doesn’t necessarily mean that Glasner asked Palace to play in a negative way though.

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Glasner Asks His Team for Consistency Regardless of Game State

We can perhaps explain why Palace & Glasner want to keep things tight - because regardless of the game state, their chance quality is some of the best in the Premier League.

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Playing Career

Oliver Glasner’s footballing education was entirely in his homeland of Austria. Born in Salzburg, the now 51 year old moved to Riedau at a very young age, and after a spell with his local side as a youngster, would later join SV Ried - around 20 minutes down the road.

He played 572 times for the club, a number that still remains a club record by over 100. Apart from a 3 game spell with LASK, he played his entire career with SV Ried- and only retired after developing a brain hemorrhage following a training session. The surgery was a success, but he followed the advice of doctors and hung his boots up after 18 years of service.

Glasner made 9 appearances for Austria’s U21 side, but was never capped by the senior side. He also made 10 appearances for SV Ried in European Competition, whilst winning 3 domestic cups and the Austrian 2nd Division title.

First Steps Into Coaching

Not long after his retirement from playing, he was offered a coaching role at the side he spent almost his entire career with. However, following a chat with the CEO of Red Bull Salzburg, Peter Vogl (who happened to be an honorary president of SV Ried as well), and joined them as a co-Sporting Director.

It wasn’t long before Ralf Rangnick informed him that they were looking for an assistant coach for the first team squad, where he served under Roger Schmidt for two seasons - finishing on a high as Austrian champions. Schmidt would move to Bayer Leverkusen, but Glasner would remain in Austria and make his first step into management.

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Becoming The Main Man in The Dugout

I imagine it came as no surprise to anybody when Oliver Glasner returned to SV Ried in the summer of 2014 to manage the club he played at for so long. He would win his first two games in charge, one in the cup and one in the Austrian top flight - but wouldn’t win another league game until the 10th round.

Interestingly (and something we’ll come on to later), Glasner started his managerial career playing with a back 4. However, to try and turn around his side’s poor run to begin the season, he switched to a back 3 system that he his now well known for - and SV Ried would finish the season comfortably in mid-table - winning 12 & drawing 6 of their 36 games - a 1 point improvement on their performance in the season before Glasner took charge.

He would then make a move down a league to join the other side he made a playing appearance for in LASK. This was perhaps a surprise, but he was reportedly given full control and was named both Director of Football & Head Coach. This maybe gives an insight as to why, since joining English football, Glasner has always been seen to be angling for more control with transfers - something that some media outlets are suggesting he may get at The City Ground.

LASK were promoted under Glasner at the second time of asking - as they finished second during his first season in charge before winning the Austrian second tier by 17 points in 2017. Throughout his time in the second tier with LASK - Glasner played with a back 4.

He then lead LASK to an impressive 5th place after promotion, which would allow them to compete in the Europa League Qualifying Rounds in the following season, where they were eventually knocked out by Besiktas despite winning the home leg 2-1. This was perhaps where Glasner first became a huge fan of the back 3, a system he switched to upon promotion to the Austrian Bundesliga and stuck with through the rest of his time at the club.

Glasner would continue to improve his side, as they finished 2nd behind Salzburg - this was LASK’s highest league finish since the 1960s. These performances saw Glasner’s stock rise, and after 4 seasons at the club he would make the move across the border to join Wolfsburg.

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The Move To Germany

His introduction to management in Germany was a very positive one - Wolfsburg would remain unbeaten in Glasner’s first 13 games in charge (whilst using a 3-4-3 formation), but a 6-1 defeat in the cup to RB Leipzig rocked the boat a little, and Wolfsburg went on to lose 6 of the next 8 matches.

Glasner then pivoted to a 4-2-3-1 system, variations of which he would use for the remainder of his two-season tenure at the club. During this time, Glasner would guide the club to two consecutive European finishes, including a 4th place finish with 1 game to spare that secured the club a spot in the Champions League.

This is when what English football fans will say is perhaps a familiar theme with Glasner (based on recent history at least) arises - despite the success he brought to the club, he departed in the summer of 2021 due to what was described as a poor relationship with his Sporting Director.

It was also reported that his relationship with his players had deteriorated too - with Wolfsburg captain Joshua Guilavogui stating “I’m glad he’s gone” in a media interview. These kinds of stories seem very similar to the noises coming out of Crystal Palace around January of this year. In Glasner’s defence though, further research suggests these were the words of a player who fell down the pecking order in a successful side, rather than those of a player who was truly wronged by his manager.

Glasner then moved to Eintracht Frankfurt, and his start there was a bit of a struggle. They lost to third-tier Waldhof Mannheim in the season opening DFB Pokal First Round, and only went on to win just 1 of their first 10 Bundesliga games. Fortunately, along with an unbeaten start in the Europa League, their form would pick up and Glasner would eventually guide his side to a mid-table finish.

Interestingly, Glasner started the season with Frankfurt playing in a back 4 - he felt it necessary to make a switch to the back 3 system that he’d had success with at LASK back in Austria, and outside of a very short spell in 2022, he has remained very loyal to this system ever since.

It was during the second half of this season when Glasner’s name started to get noticed across Europe, as he guided Frankfurt to the Europa League trophy with a victory on penalties over Rangers. Impressively, they beat Betis, Barcelona & West Ham on the road to the final - and Frankfurt therefore qualified for the Champions League.

Glasner’s side qualified through the Group Stage of the Champions League, before being knocked out by Napoli in the Round of 16. They also lost in the DFB Pokal Cup Final to RB Leipzig. A run of 10 games without a win during the second half of the season, saw the club fall from 4th to their eventual finishing position of 7th - and Glasner left the club a year before his contract expired.

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A Move To The Premier League

After a spell of around 6 months without a job, Oliver Glasner was heavily linked with a move to Nottingham Forest as a likely replacement to Steve Cooper, but as we all know the club eventually went with Nuno Espirito Santo, and Glasner waited a couple more months before replacing Roy Hodgson at Crystal Palace.

Glasner immediately went for the back 3 system that is synonymous with Crystal Palace - winning his first game against Burnley 3-0, losing just 3 of the final 13 games of the season, and coming up with some statement wins against Man Utd (4-0) and Liverpool (ending their 29 game unbeaten run at Anfield).

There was positivity at Crystal Palace to begin the following season, but Glasner once again struggled to make a good start to a season, failing to win a Premier League game until the 9th attempt. Once they got going though, Palace’s form was strong throughout the rest of the season.

Glasner of course then delivered the best day in Crystal Palace’s history, capitalising on a relatively kind draw to the FA Cup Semi Finals, before dispatching Aston Villa 3-0 and then beating Man City in the final by two goals to nil. This reenforced Glasner’s status as a winner - even though this was essentially only his second top-tier trophy as a manager.

As we as Forest fans are all too familiar with, a tumultuous summer of missed e-mails, court cases & media briefings eventually ended with Crystal Palace’s demotion to the Europa Conference League. Although a bad thing for their finances, this was no doubt a stroke of luck for those fans (and Glasner himself) who had the taste of silverware and wanted some more.

Not only did Crystal Palace return to Wembley last August and win the Community Shield on penalties over Liverpool, they would finish their season with a 3rd trophy in a year with a 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig (the home of a team who had handed some tough losses to Glasner).

Glasner’s Criticism of Steve Parish

Now we all know that during a very tricky period around January, Glasner became very outspoken and would regularly criticise Steve Parish and the powers that be at Crystal Palace for their inability to retain the value and services of their key players. He also went against the club’s wishes and made public his intention to leave at the end of the season - there was a period of time in early 2026 when it seemed certain that Glasner wouldn’t see out the season, with some players even making noises around everybody needing to remain committed to the club.

Palace of course lost Ebere Eze late in the summer transfer window, and would later lose captain Marc Guehi late in the January window too. Neither of these two players were adequately replaced, leading to this public criticism from Glasner.

It’s fair to say that these outbursts were very similar to those that saw Nuno Espirito Santo removed from his post as Head Coach early this season, but comparing the two scenarios against each other isn’t really possible. Nuno may have been frustrated at a lack of business initially, but then pivoted to being frustrated seemingly at a lack of control.

There is no doubt that Glasner will be backed with funds and players at Nottingham Forest, and I also don’t see a world where key players are 1) sold from under his nose at late notice, or 2) not replaced immediately.

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Glasner’s Formation History & Starts With Clubs

Those of you that have made it this far - you’ll be expecting me to tell you that Oliver Glasner will come into Forest and immediately implement a formation that starts with a ‘3’. And look, you’d be right. All signs point toward this being the formation that Glasner is going to choose.

However, considering all the noise we hear about Glasner, I was very surprised when digging into his coaching history that he has significant experience in using other systems. Everything we hear is how Glasner is married to his back 3 and has no real idea how to coach any other system. That is clearly not true.

Glasner has been in the dugout for 504 matches according to TransferMarkt - his sides have won 243, drawn 120, and lost 141. We can see Glasner’s starting formation history in the above visual - this shows that it wasn’t until his 6th gme in charge of Crystal Palace where his matches starting with a back 3 went above his total matches starting with a back 4.

Since then, he hasn’t used a back 4 once, and has only gone with a flat back 5 on a single occasion. Glasner hasn’t started with a back 4 formation since a 3-0 away defeat to Napoli in the Champions League back in March 2023 - this was a bit of a hail mary to surprise the opposition in an attempt to overturn a 2 goal deficit from the first leg.

The key info here from a Forest perspective, is that apart from his first role at SV Ried, Glasner has always started reasonably well when taking over a new side. It should be noted that Crystal Palace was the first role he took mid-season, with all of his other jobs giving him time to implement his ideas during pre-season.

His worst start since SV Ried, was with Frankfurt - during which he switched between different formations to try and steady the ship after a poor start. They eventually settled on the 3-4-2-1 that we’ve all seen him use here in England, and obviously went on to win the Europa League in his first season.

These statistics are a good thing - Glasner tends to start well at his new clubs, and I’d guess that if Forest were to start poorly in a 3-4-2-1 that we all expect him to start with, then he would likely roll the dice and flip to a different set up to try and get some points on the board.

Glasner’s Squad Usage

During parts of his time at LASK, and in his spell at Wolfsburg, Glasner has used squads that rank amongst the oldest in the league. Despite his LASK sides average between 24 and 24.5 years old, at one point they were still the 2nd oldest team in the league.

At Wolfsburg, he joined a team that was the eldest in the Bundesliga during his first season in charge. He managed the turnover of the squad into his second season, knocking off half a year from the average age, but they were still the 3rd oldest in the German top flight.

Moving on to Palace, when he joined mid-season the side ranked as the 11th oldest in the Premier League, with an average age of 25.1. He & the club allowed this to increase by over a year going into his second season (that brought the FA Cup), meaning they were the 6th oldest team in the division.

This past season, they knocked the year back off that total and went back down to 25.2 - perhaps with an eye on the congested schedule with European football. This made them the 9th oldest team in the Premier League.

Interestingly, Forest followed a similar pattern last summer, getting significantly younger by taking 1.3 years off their average squad age. This ranked Forest as the 7th oldest team in the league, far lower than their previous positions of 3, 3 & 4 during their seasons back in the Premier League.

Forest’s existing transfer business has seen them get significantly younger already - with the departures of Willy Boly (35), Stefan Ortega (33) & Angus Gunn (30) offsetting the transfer of Elliot Anderson (23).

Perhaps this gives Forest a bit of room to bring in an experienced head or two in the next few weeks - there’s still some gaps within the squad that need to be filled, especially on the basis that the main formation the club will likely use is going to move to a back 3 system.

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If you enjoyed this piece, please consider a paid subscription and you’ll receive access to the next parts of this deep dive on Oliver Glasner, as well as all previous posts here on my website. Next up, I’ll be looking at how Glasner’s Crystal Palace perform in different game states.

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We’ve already spent a bit of time looking at some domestic targets, plus some players that would help cover some of the defensive gaps in Forest’s midfield after Anderson’s departure. Today, we’ll look at some options that can help Forest progress the ball forward, and therefore make the side more dangerous in attack.

Victor Froholdt

Starting with somewhat of a familiar face in FC Porto’s Victor Froholdt - the Danish midfielder started in Sean Dyche’s first game in charge last October, and came off the bench in both legs of the Europa League Quarter Final.

His defensive numbers are far lower than Anderson’s - but we must take into account that the 22 year old has been playing for one of the strongest teams in the league, so it is to be expected that the volume of his defensive actions would be quite low.

In possession, Frohold provided a real attacking threat from the right of Porto’s midfield 3 (the only position he played), scoring 6 goals and assisting another 6 too.

He’s very adept at carrying the ball, particularly from inside his own final third on the right edge of the box. We can see also that he creates plenty of chances from the inside right channel. This obviously means he is likely not a candidate to replace Anderson on the left of a midfield pair - but if Forest were to switch systems to play with Sangare behind 2 central midfielders, Froholdt would be a great, young option in the right ‘8’ spot.

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Because of the team he’s playing for, Froholdt hasn’t been able to demonstrate the all-round game that we know Anderson has. Although from memory in his appearances against Forest, I saw a player with a very high work-rate, and a knack of getting into some dangerous places when his side have the ball.

For Porto, the data suggests Froholdt uses this ability to get into dangerous areas to be heavily involved right at the end of phases of possession - he ranks very highly as a Box Crasher & a Locksmith.

Froholdt would give Forest a completely different option in the midfield, one they’ve not really had before. Anderson’s 4 goals last season is the most from a Forest central midfielder in the Premier League since promotion, and it’s only Danilo that made it to 3 goals too.

Porto signed him from Copenhagen only last summer for a reported fee of around €20m with some bonuses and a small sell on fee. His contract runs until at least 2030, so in my opinion any potential buyer is likely going to need to go north of £45m to have a chance of signing him.

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Finding a replacement for Britain’s most expensive player is never going to be an easy task - Part 2 of this series, I’ll be looking at some options who are perhaps best suited to give Forest the activity and work-rate off the ball that they’re going to miss now Anderson’s move to Man City is virtually done.

Leon Avdullahu - 22 - TSG Hoffenheim

The first option we’ll look at here is Kosovan international Leon Avdullahu, who played nearly 3,000 minutes in his first Bundesliga campaign after moving from FC Basel last summer.

The first thing that sticks out here is those large blue slices that look at the success and quantity of Avdullahu’s defensive actions. He’s a very active player, something we can definitely relate to when watching Anderson over the past two seasons.

Avdullahu it seems is more likely to make interceptions on opposition passes, but it does look as though he’s doing his defensive work in lower-danger areas, evidenced by the lower score for Blocking Shots and in my personally developed Threat Prevented metric.

We can see for the most part when looking at his overall position profile, Avdullahu is a fairly similar type of player in that he gets involved in lots of different areas of the game.

There’s a couple of concerns, mainly Avdullahu’s lack of experience at the highest level, and that for the most part he has been asked to play on the right side the midfield, when we know that Anderson tends to operate on the left side and that’s the spot that is open in Forest’s midfield.

It should also be noted that despite Avdullahu having a very high amount of defensive actions - he isn’t necessarily the strongest in 1 v 1 duels, this is an area that Anderson has improved in during his time at Forest. Instead, Avdullahu’s defensive numbers come primarily from his ability to intercept & recover possession, something we are familiar with in Anderson’s game.

On the bright side, even though Avdullahu does play most of his minutes on the right of midfield, he still receives most of his passes on the left hand side of the pitch. This suggests he’d be comfortable in moving over to the left if Forest were to sign him.

Despite only joining Hoffenheim last summer, they were so impressed with his debut season that he signed a new deal in April and extended his deal to 2031. For that reason, Hoffenheim won’t feel much pressure to sell, meaning if a team showed interest they’d likely have to fork out somewhere around £30m for his services.

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Chema Andrés - 21 - VFB Stuttgart

Staying in the Bundesliga, young Spanish midfielder Chema Andrés joined Stuttgart from giants Real Madrid for a bargain fee of just €3 million. He’s already proven that he’s worth way more than that, so let’s dig in to why.

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Such is the talent that Elliot Anderson possesses, we can start off by saying that it is practically impossible for Forest to find themselves a like-for-like replacement in a single transfer.

The likelihood is they’ll be looking to recruit two players in central midfield. This will take their current squad options up to 5, and Forest will hope they’ll be able to invest in players with different profiles that when combined can cover the skill gap that Anderson’s departure will create.

Clearly this isn’t ideal - but that’s the unfortunate reality of the situation in my opinion. So with that in mind over the next few days I’ll dig in to some potential replacements for him. Firstly, let’s look at some domestic targets that Forest reportedly (and in some cases hopefully!) have their eye on.

Lucas Bergvall

It was reported recently by numerous outlets that Forest were interested in Tottenham’s young Swedish midfielder, after he expressed his desire to leave the club for more regular football. Although not the same player, there’s some similarities in Bergvall & Anderson that probably appeal to both parties.

Bergvall is a player who is looking to find consistent game time - just as Anderson was when he left Newcastle two summers ago. Bergvall’s own versatility has caused him some unfortunate issues - like Anderson he can play almost anywhere in the midfield (including in wide areas), therefore it’s been very difficult for him to hold down a single spot in the side.

This pretty even split of playing time across multiple positions, combined with just over 1,000 minutes in the Premier League this season, does make it pretty difficult to analyse his game purely on data - so we have to keep these small sample sizes in mind.

The above chart compares Anderson’s performances for Forest this season in a midfield 2, against Bergvall’s performances for Tottenham in a midfield 3. Bergvall (in blue) looks to show more of an attaking threat, whilst his possession numbers are very similar.

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Defensively though is the big difference, and this on first look is a bit of a worry if the idea is for him to be Anderson’s main replacement. No player in the top European leagues had as many successful or attempted defensive actions per 90 than Elliot Anderson - whereas Bergvall sits around the bottom 25th percentile in this area of the game.

He was also the least likely central midfielder to intercept an opposition pass or block an opposition shot. But we need to remember two things - the low sample size, and even more importantly what Anderson’s own data looked like the season before he joined Forest.

Doesn’t this look a lot more promising? Anderson’s defensive numbers were significantly lower during his last season for Newcastle in a midfield 3 than they were for Forest in a pair last season - infact, there’s a lot of overlap here in both of the data sets.

We must also remember that when Anderson joined Forest two seasons ago, he had practically no experience of playing in a midfield pair. It’s something I was very vocal on when he was signed - and although judging on what we’ve seen in the last 24 months Anderson would’ve eventually forcd his way into the side anyway, his route to starting position opened up due to Danilo’s very unfortunate opening day injury.

For me, although it sounds like a lot of money, if you can get your hands on a player of Bergvall’s huge potential and (for his age) vast experience for somewhere around £40-£45m, I think it represents it pretty good value deal and one I’d hope Forest would look to get involved in. If Bergvall does indeed join Forest, expect a lot more on him from me!

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James Garner

Now this one is perhaps a little unrealistic - but with Everton now reportedly on the hook for a large chunk of compensation that they need to pay out to Burnley, there is a chance that they may need to do a bit of balancing of the books.

James Garner would represent the closest thing Forest could get to a ‘ready-made’ replacement, and as an added positive they wouldn’t have to worry about any adjustment to the league, something that caught the club out with the majority of their recruitment last summer.

Garner is a very hard-working player, who also has the ability to progress the ball forward from deeper areas in a similar fashion to Anderson. The biggest difference is that Anderson is far more likely to carry the ball forward than the Everton midfielder.

The ex Man Utd man’s defensive activity almost matches the height of Anderson, but I would argue he’s a slightly more disciplined player out of possession. What you also get from him is that added versatility to fill in in full-back positions when required - not something you’d ideally want to start with, but definitely an in-game option if Vitor Pereira wanted to make some quick switches to the tactics.

One thing I am sure that Forest will be keeping in mind (but something I think that can sometimes be forgotten by fans), is where these potential replacements want to do their work. Despite Anderson’s incredible work rate and ability to cover ground - he does most of his work on the left of the field rather than the right.

Garner - who like Anderson is right-footed - also does the majority of his work in the left half of the field. This is very important because I don’t imagine Forest would like to move Ibrahim Sangare over to the other side after he’s finally settled into his spot in the lineup.

Of course, there’s always the chance Forest would go to a 4-3-3 system, but there is still nobody in the squad who can fill the LCM spot in my opinion. Garner definitely could.

The big problem of course is the transfer fee - I’d imagine Garner would be interested in returning to The City Ground, but if you want to buy a ‘sure thing’, you have to pay for it too. I find it hard to believe that Everton would want to do business for less than £50m - and to be honest I’m not sure Forest would go that high either.

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Curtis Jones

Not for the first time, it seems like Liverpool’s Curtis Jones is being linked with moves away from Anfield. Jones has the profile that matches what Forest have done previously with their transfer business - a player from a ‘bigger’ club who perhaps needs a change of scenery. Perhaps slightly different to the ‘reclamation projects’ that Forest had looked at previously when there was a little less money in the bank.

Jones spent a lot of his time playing at right back last season - that’s not a position anyone sees him in long-term, he played just over 700 minutes there in the Premier League as Arne Slot found it tough to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold.

I’ve got a few reservations around Curtis Jones, and the biggest one came from one of his games in the Champions League at right back. As Liverpool were down 2-1 at home against PSV, Jones stood completely still after a Konate mistake and watched on as his man finished a rebound opportunity to extend the lead to 2 goals. You can see him clearly at the bottom of the screen here just watching the attack unfold.

This on its own is bad enough - what in my opinion made things even worse though was Jones coming out to do the post-match interview on TV and said "I don't have the answers. Honestly, I don't. It's just unacceptable… I'm past being angry inside. I'm at the point now where I just don't have the words.”

These are very strong words from a player who just stood and watched the club he supports go 2 goals down to an Eredivisie side in the Champions League. It makes me question his mentality a little and leads me to believe he wouldn’t fit at Forest, especially considering there’s a high likelihood there’s going to be stretches in every season where things aren’t going the club’s way.

It will come as no surprise then to see Jones’ overall data profile look very similar to Anderson’s, but without the defensive impact and actions. Yes, he was playing for a team with more of the ball, but Anderson is certainly much happier to do the dirty work.

Now, there’s no doubting that Jones is a talented player - and although recent rumours that Liverpool may be prepared to let him go for as little as £25m may be wide of the mark, any fee close to that level is one that Forest would be silly not to look at.

As I said above though, I’m just not sure he has the right mentality to fit in with this squad - and like many players that I’ll be bringing up in the next week or so, to get the best out of him Forest would likely need to change the preferred formation to a 4-3-3 to mask his defensive deficiencies.

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Shea Charles

Southampton’s Northern Irish central midfielder Shea Charles is very high on my list of replacements for Anderson - he’s a player I’d love to see Forest go in for and I’d be really disappointed if he makes the move to Leeds who have apparently had a £20m bid rejected.

A graduate of Manchester City’s academy, Charles joined Southampton in the summer of 2023 on a deal that reportedly expires next summer. He helped them return to the Premier League that season, but was then sent out on loan to Sheffield Wednesday as The Saints got relegated again.

Last season, he helped Saints reach the play-offs before they were eventually expelled, but for me his performances were more than enough to show he deserves a chance at Premier League level.

Charles’ data profile is very strong, and as a player who spends most of his time on the left of a midfield 2, would slot in well in Forest’s side if they stuck with a 4-2-3-1 system.

Charles’ profile is very well rounded - there’s not much he can’t do as a central midfielder from a data stand point, that’s a great place to start when looking for a replacement. In my limited viewing of him over the last season - he’s always been the one that impressed for Southampton & Northern Ireland, and it looks like he loves a big game too.

The big question mark around him is obviously the big step up to Premier League level - he’s been a solid-to-great performer at Championship level for 3 seasons now, and at 22 this is the natural step. I’d love to see Forest take a stronger look at the Championship for new signings because they should find it much easier to adapt upon joining than those signings from Europe & South America.

The lack of noise around him from a Forest perspective makes this seem fairly unlikely though to me unfortunately - I imagine Leeds will up their offer slightly to around £25m and that will probably be enough to get a deal done - if that is the case I’m certainly not looking forward to seeing him rock up to The City Ground on opening day!

Hayden Hackney

Hackney is a player Forest were reportedly interested in back in January, so it seemed pretty weird to not hear much about any further interest when Everton attempted to lowball Middlesbrough with an offer lower than the North East’s club apparent £20m valuation.

For that price - similar to Shea Charles - I think Forest should be all over this potential deal. Hackney offers far more going forward than Charles - probably more than Anderson too if we’re looking purely at goals and assists - but it’s without the ball where I think he’d struggle to fit in at Forest.

If Forest were to go in this direction - then I think this would be the biggest signal that Pereira & the club are giving serious consideration to moving away from a 4-2-3-1 formation. For me, I don’t think Forest could go into the season with someone like Hackney playing alongside Ibrahim Sangaré in a midfield pair.

I think the only way Hackney could fit in to the set up that Forest used to close out the season, would be to put him closest to the striker and keep Gibbs-White drifting in from the left - but that in itself raises questions around how happy Gibbs-White would be to stay wider (even if it resulted in more attacking contributions & freedom), and also the game time of Callum Hudson-Odoi.

The really interesting thing about Hackney (and another reason why he probably can’t be a direct replacement for Anderson), is where he likes to get on the ball. No matter which position he was used in for Middlesbrough, the same trends always appear.

He tends to pop up on the right side of the field (the 3rd pitch) to receive the ball - but the majority of his attacking actions come on the left edge of the box. This is a weird quirk that suggests Hackney can get involved in phases of play early on, before trying to help finish the moves on the other side of the field with either an assist or a shot.

Like Shea Charles, if the price tag is hovering around the £20m mark, I think it’s a deal Forest have to seriously consider. Young English players of Hackney’s quality don’t come on the market too often at such a (relatively) low price - and seeing as he’s jumping up a level it would be fair to say he wouldn’t be demanding immediate first-team football either.

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Over the weekend and into next week, I’ll be looking at some other potential targets who aren’t playing in England. Please consider a paid subscription to get those posts direct to your inbox, as well as access to all previous and future articles!

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His main responsibility in this game in particular was to shield the back 4, we know having watched him for 3 seasons now that when he’s on his game, this is something that he can do very well.

In this first clip, he is initially in a position where he can react to any attempt by Germany to penetrate the central area of the final third, before pressing quickly and making a block on the pass. Sangarémade 9 blocks like this one during his 75 minutes on the pitch, more than any other player.

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Here in the second half, Sangaré’s patience to remain static rather than get drawn to the ball allows him to pounce on the ball, intercept and start a quick transition attack. When playing this role, the movements you don’t make are just as important as the ones that you do - and we’re about to see why.

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It was a very weird pre-season from Nuno, who didn’t do any club or national media until he was contractually obliged to do so. It was during this period that he started to voice some concerns about how his relationship with Evangelos Marinakis had been deteriorating - so much so that they didn’t even speak any more.

It later transpired that this was likely due to Nuno & Head of Global Football Edu clashing in one of their first face to face meetings. None of us were in the room when this happened, so any opinion any of us have on this is just simply that, an opinion.

For me, it was disappointing that Nuno wasn’t able to put personal differences aside at a time when his stock & reputation had arguably never been higher. Football is not ‘the real world’, we all know this, but all of us at some point will have had a manager or someone in a position of power we didn’t necessarily get along with or agree with. Generally, you just try and get on with the situation - but Nuno chose do the opposite.

Perhaps this boils down to Nuno’s & Edu’s own relationships with rival agents, more likely it was due to Nuno wanting a bigger say in transfers (particularly those that would involve his agent). Forest have operated a structure for a long time now where the Head Coach has a say in transfers, but not the final say - this is very much the modern way now.

Nuno almost immediately joined West Ham, and brought in his own players on significant wages, who for the most part struggle to perform. Adama Traore was the big rumour, but it’s clear he is not the force he once was and Forest were right to not sanction his arrival.

To their credit, on the opening day the squad managed to put all of these distractions behind them with a great performance & victory against Brentford. Unfortunately, only two weeks later they fell to a dismal 3-0 defeat at home to West Ham, a performance & result that would essentially seal Nuno’s departure during the international break.

I just feel a great deal of disappointment in the way things ended - Nuno cultivated a great relationship between players, staff & fans during the push for European qualification. To me at least, he threw this away because he didn’t get on with his new boss.

I do wonder if he has taken any time to look back at some of his actions and if he regrets them. He doesn’t strike me as a man who dwells on the past too much, but in a parallel universe Nuno has just led Forest to a European trophy whereas in reality he’s managing in the Championship next season, not the Champions League.

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Ange Postecoglou

Even before the season started, I had voiced my thoughts privately with some people that if Nuno were to start the season badly, then we may be seeing a certain Europa League winner come through the door.

I do think if the decision was made over the summer (which rightly would’ve come with heaps of criticism), Forest & Postecoglou would’ve stood a much better chance of having some success. But to try and introduce Postecoglou’s principles and way of playing on the fly, with a team that had been one that predominantly soaked up pressure and counter attacked very successfully last season, was a huge ask.

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Some interesting statistics from the match:

• Anderson made 86 offers to receive the ball from his team mates, 34 more than any other England player. He was then found 32 times thanks to those offers.

• 39 of those offers were in front of the opposition line - again most of all England players.

• Anderson had 8 possession regains, the highest of all English outfielders.

• He made 12 ‘direct pressures’, more than any other player on the pitch.

• Anderson attempted 9 line breaking passes, completing 6 of them.

• Anderson covered 12,044 metres during the game, the most among all English players (and 2nd highest in the game).

• His 54 sprints during the game was bettered only by Jude Bellingham & Anthony Gordon in the England side.

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Every international tournament it seems there is a lot of noice about Harry Kane and how he spends too much time not being a centre forward. The truth is though, he is a fantastically gifted player with the ball at his feet, and he has the intelligence to match those abilities.

By dropping into areas that a conventional number 9 would not operate in, he is constantly asking questions of centre backs and central midfielders. Should they follow him? If so, how far? Should they pass him over? It seems Thomas Tuchel’s squad selection especially in those attacking areas was geared almost completely around getting the most of England’s record goalscorer.

This first clip is from an England goal kick. This was a clear early plan from Tuchel to have Kane & Bellingham drop deeper than the two wingers - who themselves were narrower than you might expect. The idea behind this is to disrupt Croatia’s back 3, centered by a very talented but inexperienced Luka Vuskovic.

The 19 year old is hesitant to follow Kane so far up the field initially, this allows the Bayern man to receive, turn and play in Noni Madueke on the right flank. This simple set up has created a huge gap between the two wide centre backs, and in this case Gvardiol is trying to manage that gap whilst keeping tabs on Madueke. The Arsenal winger now has his man isolated in a wide 1 v 1, and England have a 3 v 3 that they don’t take advantage of.

In this next clip, Kane begins as the centre forward but then jogs back into essentially a '6’ position. He goes past two Croatia players who both point to a team mate to pick him up, none of them do and he’s able to receive the pass with lots of time and space.

What follows here is clearly something else England have been working on. Each of the England midfielders & attackers make subtle movements that are designed to create another large gap in the backline for Bellingham to try and expose.

Madueke tries to drag Gvardiol wide, Gordon does the same on the other flank. The central midfielders switch sides, and even Reece James drops back to try and create more room. Kane’s pass doesn’t come off, but these simple rotations are the result of some very nice work on the training ground in the last couple of weeks.

As the first half went on, Vuskovic would get a bit braver and follow Kane a little further up the pitch. Whether this was instruction from the Croatian dugout, or just the youngster feeling more comfortable, is irrelevant to England really.

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In this clip, Kane’s positioning creates a very staggered back 3 and gives Gordon an entire quarter of the pitch to run in to if Declan Rice can find the pass. He’d be in on goal for a 1 v 1 here even though he’s beginning this move in his own half. This was another missed opportunity for England, and Gordon wasn’t rewarded for his run. He had a match-high of 20 runs in behind, followed very closely by Madueke’s 19.

In this final clip from the second half, Kane this time drops very slowly almost to the edge of his own box. In a familiar theme to the first half, nobody from the defeence or the midfield (including the experienced Luka Modric) follows Kane.

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Eventually, he receives the ball in the ‘6’ position again, but this time with the difference that he has the time and space to turn and carry the ball way up the field. He spreads the ball wide but again England fail to create a good opportunity from this move.

I’d expect us to see Kane continue to drop deep throughout the tournament, and with wingers that will threaten in behind (especially Gordon & Rashford from the left), as well as Jude Bellingham who we saw yesterday can make those moves too, I imagine we’ll see some more success coming from this tactic too.

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The season started so well for Forest & for Wood in particular, as he scored two nice goals on the opening day against a Brentford side that looked very poor. That game turned out to mean very little though, as Forest went on to struggle (domestically at least), Wood picked up an injury that saw him miss half the season, and Brentford almost qualified for Europe.

Wood went on to score just 3 more goals in the remainder of the season, and his presence was sorely missed by a Forest side that struggled to score goals for large parts of the season.

His return at the back end of the season did spark Forest into a bit of life, even if the goals didn’t necessarily come from last season’s top scorer. Having the ability to play him and Igor Jesus close together in central areas just gave defences something else to think about, and suddenly the goals started to flow for Forest.

Wood ended up missing over 60% of the season with his injury, after eventually undergoing surgery at Christmas when it was deemed his recovery wasn’t progressing well enough. He made 20 appearances, (15 of them starts), by missing 34 matches essentially he was unavailable for almost an entire Premier League season.

According to Opta, all of his game time was as a lone striker - although his time up front with Igor Jesus did allow them to play close together as I’ve already mentioned in a bit of a hybrid front two.

2026/27 Plans

Wood will be delighted that he can captain his country in the World Cup - as much as he would’ve wanted to regain his fitness to play for Forest, I’m sure the carrot of the competition was weighing heavily on his mind too during his rehabilitiation phase.

From a Forest point of view, they’ll just be hoping he gets through the tournament unscathed. Next season, Forest really need to work out a succession plan for him - I’d imagine he will start as the first choice striker, but for me there’s not a potential long-term replacement for him in the squad so I’d expect Forest to try and find his successor this summer.

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Igor Jesus

A player who ended up as Forest’s main striker for the majority of the season, Igor Jesus was probably the best signing the club made over the summer. He has taken a while to adjust to Premier League football, but began to really thrive when he was moved slightly deeper with Chris Wood ahead of him.

In cup competitions, the Brazilian was probably the club’s best player - he scored 2 goals in his first start for the club in the the Carabao Cup away at Swansea, and his contributions in the Europa League led him to be named in the competition’s Team of the Season.

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USA made a fantastic start to their World Cup campaign with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Paraguay. Setting up in a 4-3-3, Pochettino would regularly ask his side to move into a back 3 when they had possession.

Sergiño Dest played very high and very wide on the right, with Antonee Robinson & Christian Pulisic often rotating high and wide on the left. By putting 5 men on or near the defensive line, Paraguay’s back 4 became very stretched and this created huge gaps in the channels between the centre backs and full backs.

Weston McKennie in particular caused Paraguay so many problems with his movement in behind - so often an unselfish action too. This first clip is from the opening 2 minutes, and this run set the tone for USA’s game plan.

According to official FIFA data, USA made 350 ‘offers to receive’ possession from their team mates. An incredible 118 of those offers were classed as ‘in behind’, with a 100 of them coming in the final third.

McKennie himself made 22 of these moves in behind, more than any other player. In total he made himself available to receive the pass 67 times, but only received it 25 times - yet more evidence of his hard work that often wasn’t rewarded.

It wasn’t just him though - in this second clip, USA are again in their back 3 shape in possession. Dest’s wide positioning creates a large gap that McKennie moves in to, but the ball doesn’t come. USA switch the ball quickly before Robinson is next to threaten in behind.

Pulisic then moves narrowly, and with Balogun taking the attention of both Paraguay central defenders, another huge gap forms in the back line. It’s Tillman who takes advantage of this, and receives a nice pass over the top.

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All of these off the ball movements from the USA players are very intelligent, and Paraguay just couldn’t deal with it in the back 4 shape they were set up in.

In this final Tactical Cam clip, we see the build up to the second goal. The huge difference here? USA stay in the back 4 when winning back possession - they would often do this when they begin possession on the left. Pulisic gets the space to receive wide on the touch line, before finding himself in a more narrow position moments later.

Antonee Robinson receives the ball and locks eyes with Pulisic - his movement here is tremendous. He faces the ball and then suddenly darts into the space in behind - the difference being this time that it’s his own movement that has essentially created this space in behind.

Using the BBC’s fantastic 3D tool, where you can watch all of the games they broadcast with a first person view of any player on the pitch, we get an even better idea about how brilliant this pass from Robinson is.

You can just see in the top left of the screen Robinson’s view of Pulisic’s dart in behind, he then curls the ball around two Paraguay players and into his path, before Pulisic lays it on a plate for Balogun.

This was a very impressive start to the World Cup by Mauricio Pochettino’s USA side, it will be interesting to see if they use this kind of tactical plan again in the upcoming games, or whether the Argentinian will cook up some different ideas.

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Although Neco Williams was a worthy winner of Forest’s Player of the Season award - for me it should’ve been Gibbs-White walking away with the trophy. His performances for a short period under Sean Dyche, but then for the entireity of Vitor Pereira’s stint, were the biggest reason Forest will be playing in the Premier League next season - without him, I very much doubt it would be West Ham preparing for the Championship.

Gibbs-White had already scored 4 goals under Vitor Pereira, but a half-time switch against Burnley that moved him over to the left wing, resulted in a hattrick of goals just 15 minutes apart. He’d contribute another 3 goals and 2 assists before the season finished - eventually scoring 6 from just 367 minutes coming off the left wing.

It shouldn’t be forgotten though that toward the start of the season, his form was very poor. It was a summer full of distractions for him both in and out of football, and it looked like it affected his performance levels. Gibbs-White didn’t score under Nuno or Ange this season, and after a short scoring spree of 4 in 6 for Dyche, he then went another 8 games without a goal contribution.

Fortunately, he managed to turn this around, with his levels in 2026 being very high as he looked to force himself onto the plane for the World Cup. Thomas Tuchel clearly made his mind up on Gibbs-White before this form though, and sadly he’ll be sat at home this summer.

As for highlights this season, along with his first career hattrick, his nights in Istanbul and at the Etihad were real turning points in Forest’s season. For long stretches in 2026 it looked like he really felt like this was his team, and he would drag his team mates through games.

He spoke toward the end of the season about having to change his game slightly to try and contribute more goals in the absence of Chris Wood - he did that really well with a total of 18. His assists in turn dropped to just 7, but a combined 25 is still a very good return.

2026/27 Plans:

Hopefully this will now be a less eventful summer for Gibbs-White, who’ll have some good time to recharge his batteries ahead of the next campaign. I’d imagine Forest would try to tie him down to another new contract too. For him next season has to be about maintaining his goals & assists output through an entire season - that’s not to say he should be hitting 30 goal involvements, but if he starts the next campaign in the same way he started this last one, it will cause problems for Vitor Pereira.

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James McAtee

Forest’s interest in England’s U21 European Championship winning Captain was well known throughout the summer, and they sealed the deal just ahead of the opening day of the season. What unfolded afterwards though, wasn’t what McAtee or perhaps even the club would have expected.

In a 56 game season, it took until games 52 and 53 for McAtee to start consecutive matches. It was really difficult for him to find any form in his sporadic appearances in what was for the most part a dysfunctional team - especially when he was used out of position so often under Sean Dyche.

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I think despite the trials and tribulations of this season, Forest fans will look back on it fondly purely because we all got to see Elliot Anderson really start to fulfil his incredible potential. It’s incredible to think that there’s probably more to come from him when he makes the move to team of higher quality.

After winning the U21 European Championship with England last summer, he progressed almost immediately to the senior side and as long as he avoids injury will be a definite starter at the World Cup later this month.

His defensive numbers are not only amongst the best in England, but also across all the top European leagues. He matches this defensive ability with an incredible range of passing, regularly bypassing midfield lines with passes to those further ahead than him on the pitch.

His big drop in form came in late March and early April, and it later transpired that his mother passed from a long-term illness. His response to this tragedy spoke volumes about the kind of person and player he is, and he finished the season with some key contributions that helped Forest retain their Premier League status.

Anderson didn’t miss a single game through injury this season, missing only 2 games officially, both through suspension. One of these came after a rare disappointing moment from him, where he received a straight red card for dissent toward the referee in a horrible night in Braga.

He played over 4,400 minutes for Forest in all competitions, and that doesn’t include his appearances for England. Last season it seemed like Forest had to manage Anderson during training to maintain his fitness, but we didn’t hear much about that in this campaign, a real sign that he’s been working on his fitness and recovery.

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2026/27 Plans:

Unfortunately for Forest, it seems almost definite that he’ll be moving on this summer. The good thing is that he’s going to bring in a ridiculous sum of money, perhaps even a record for an English player. My hope is a good World Cup can potentially add another few million to the price tag before we see him move on. Wherever he goes, I’d expect an even greater attacking involvement as his supporting cast improves.

Ibrahim Sangare

It’s taken a while, but we’ve finally seen a real consistency (and availability) from Sangare this last season. Once he got settled into this season’s starting lineup, it’s fair to say Forest never really looked the same when he wasn’t around.

Defensively, he was incredibly strong. Only 2 midfielders in the Premier League blocked shots more often than he did, and when paired with Elliot Anderson they shared a formidable partnership.

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Nottingham Forest’s Player of the Season in 2024/25, Milenkovic’s performance levels certainly dipped this time around. The chopping & changing of playing style likely didn’t help the Serbian, as he went from low-block transition football, to care-free all-out-attack, to low-block route on, and ended with Pereira’s more possession friendly style that sits somewhere in the middle.

Perhaps most disappointly though, was the complete lack of attacking threat in domestic football. Last season Milenkovic contributed 5 goals and 2 assists, this season his single goal & single assist both came in the Europa League.

He ended the season in poor form, and was outshone by each of his central defensive partners during the last few games. Forest will hope that was due to his incredibly high workload throughout the season.

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Milenkovic was one of only 4 players to be available for the entire season (discounting those who joined in January). He appeared in 54 of Forest’s 56 games, playing mostly as the right sided centre back in a back 4.

His season highlight probably came at Tottenham, where he made 11 clearances in a solid performance that was massive in terms of Forest retaining their Premier League status. On the other hand, Ollie Watkins caused him plenty of trouble in the Europa League 2nd leg defeat at Villa Park.

2025/26 Plans

A summer off will hopefully do Milenkovic the world of good. He’ll also benefit from Forest’s schedule being significantly lighter next season too. He’s virtually a guarantee to be in the starting lineup on opening day, but it’s up to him to keep the shirt from Jair Cunha who will be looking to improve on his debut season in England, and from any potential summer arrival.

Murillo

The data tells us that Murillo had a very strong season for Forest, but I think it’s fair to say he’s one of many across the squad who didn’t reach the heights of last season. He seemed to have injury issues throughout the season, proven by the fact that he was never available for more than 13 games on the bounce.

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A deserved winner of Forest’s Player of the Season award, Williams was easily the most consistent player on the team, probably making only 2 poor appearances out of the 53 he made.

Neco’s career as a Forest player has been a really interesting one - brought in initially to replace Djed Spence as Right Wing Back in a 5, after showcasing his attacking talent in the Fulham side that got promoted as Champions along with Forest. He’s since transformed himself to be one of the best full backs in the Premier League, on his ‘unfavoured’ left side too.

79% of Neco’s minutes came on the left hand side of the pitch this season, that’s over 3,600 - the equivalent of more than an entire Premier League season. For the first time in his Forest career, he didn’t miss a single game through injury, with his one enforced absence coming after his red card against Crystal Palace.

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Williams will likely be the subject of some interest from Premier League clubs - perhaps even Liverpool who may want to target him as a home grown player. Forest will probably need to try and tie him down to a new deal, despite only giving him another one last summer.

Ola Aina

A disrupted pre-season, during which he missed parts of training and some matches, probably didn’t help Aina who got injured on international duty just 3 games in to the Premier League season.

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Matz Sels

After the best season of his career last time out, ending with a Golden Glove, Matz Sels was one of many players who struggled to maintain the high level we saw during Forest’s European push.

It seemed like Sean Dyche wasn’t a huge fan of Sels, as he essentially dropped him for a goalkeeper who didn’t inspire confidence in John Victor, and later asked the club to recruit another keeper in Stefan Ortega.

Sels’ unwillingness to come off his line probably didn’t appeal to Dyche, but to be fair to Sels, he responded really well in the second half of the season. Once he returned from a second short spell out injured, head coach Vitor Pereira kept Sels in for the Premier League games, whilst choosing Ortega to the Europa League games.

Whilst Ortega is clearly better on the ball, under Pereira both keepers performed pretty well, with neither really deserving to be dropped. Sels came through with some key saves at important moments, as Forest eventually secured Premier League safety.

2026/27 Plans:

Sels remains under contract, and with Ortega looking likely to leave the club as his deal expires, it’s fair to assume Sels will go into next season as the first choice keeper. I do expect Forest to look for a new, younger goalkeeper though, one who could potentially be the answer to the position in the longer-term.

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John Victor

One of 4 players to join over the summer from Botafogo, John Victor arrived in Nottingham on the back of a relatively successful Club World Cup. Things started poorly for him though, has he conceded 3 from the 4 shots on target, with Forest giving up a 2-0 lead in the final 10 minutes to lose in Ange Postecoglou’s second game in charge.

He had to wait a couple of months before his next appearance, starting in a rotated side away in Austria against Sturm Graz. He finished with a clean sheet, but was fortunate to see a goal disallowed for offside. In his following appearances he failed to inspire confidence.

In his 5th Premier League start, away at Aston Villa, he would make the big mistake that it felt like we all saw coming. He came rushing far out of his goal to try and intercept a pass that he was never, ever going to get to. John McGinn was able to finish in the empty net.

To make things worse for him, he picked up a serious knee injury that saw him miss virtually the entire season, and also ruled him out of a potential trip to the World Cup with Brazil as their 3rd choice keeper.

2026/27 Plans:

There’s likely going to be a space in the squad for a 2nd choice keeper next season, but I’d be pretty surprised if Forest are comfortable with John Victor being the next man up should Matz Sels pick up an injury again. For that reason, I’d expect John Victor to depart over the summer.

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Stefan Ortega

With Sean Dyche not really fancying Matz Sels (or Angus Gunn), and John Victor out with a serious knee injury, Forest turned to Stefan Ortega late in the winter transfer window. Sels had just picked up an injury in the previous game, so Ortega had an immediate route to first team football.

Forest essentially picked up his existing contract for the remainder of the season. Outside of a horrendous team & coaching performance in his debut at Leeds, Ortega acquitted himself really well. His talents with the ball, especially under Vitor Pereira, made Forest a much more dangerous side in the build-up phase.

Unfortunately for Ortega, he would pick up a slight injury of his own and have to hand the gloves back over to Matz Sels. Once he returned to fitness, Pereira gave him the Europa League games, and he played a huge part in Forest’s run to the semi-finals.

A vastly changed Forest side could have been dead and buried in Porto, if not for a very lucky own goal and a fantastic performance from Ortega. For me, he probably deserved the number one shirt in the league too, but to be fair to Sels, he was also in fine form as Pereira steered the team clear of relegation.

2026/27 Plans:

Ortega is out of contract this summer, and for me there’s no doubt that he should be a starting keeper at a club in one of the big leagues. If it were down to me, I’d be doing everything I could to tie him down and tell him that he’s the first choice next season. I don’t think that’s the way the club will go though - Forest will likely try to retain him, but I expect Ortega to depart in search of a No.1 shirt elsewhere.

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Everybody knows that to pick a well-balanced squad for an international tournament, there’s all sorts of reasoning and thinking that goes in to choosing who gets the nod. But, for something a bit different, let’s see what the squad would be if we just used data from the Top 5 European Leagues this season.

The squad here has been picked using my Player Impact metric, with just three criteria that players must meet:

• Over 500 league minutes in the relevant position

• They must be fit for selection

• They must be eligible for selection by England (obviously!)

Goalkeepers

This area of the squad is probably the least surprising part - and arguably the easiest to select. Jordan Pickford remains England’s No. 1, he’ll be supported by Dean Henderson and Newcastle’s Nick Pope.

The first two will definitely be selected in the squad on Friday, but it’s likely that James Trafford gets included ahead of the unfavoured Pope.

Goalkeepers who will probably make the final squad: 2/3

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Defenders:

Here I’ve gone with 9 defenders, with Ben White not included due to his apparent injury. At left back, we’ve got Nico O’Reilly, and a resurgent Luke Shaw - who was last capped by England in 2024. On the right, Chelsea’s Reece James is first choice, with Real Madrid’s Trent Alexander-Arnold playing second fiddle.

It’s the centre backs that throw up the most surprises. Marc Guehi is not one of them, but I’d be amazed if more than 1 of the other 4 actually get a call up. Harry Maguire is probably the one with the best chance of being selected.

The big surprises here are Everton’s Michael Keane, who’s data suggests he would be very valuable to bring on to help defend a lead in knockout games if Tuchel wanted to switch to a more defensive style. The chances of him adding to his 12 England caps though are very slim.

Then, we’ve got two potential debutants. U21 European Championship winner Charlie Cresswell, who has enjoyed a nice season in Ligue 1 with Toulouse, playing almost exclusively in a back 3. The other surprise is Bournemouth’s James Hill - it’s been a breakthrough season for the 24 year old - who would also bring the added benefit of having a long throw for set piece situations.

Defenders who will probably make the final squad: 4/9

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Midfielders:

A couple of certainties for the squad here, in Premier League winner Declan Rice, and the player who will likely be moving on from Nottingham Forest this summer in Elliot Anderson.

They’ll be joined on the plane by Bournemouth’s Alex Scott, and a resurgent Kobbie Mainoo who has really impressed under Michael Carrick at Manchester United. Everton’s James Garner is the last deeper lying midfielder who makes this squad, his versatility would also help cover both full-back positions at a push too.

In the more advanced areas, Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham is an obvious choice, and he is joined by arguably England’s best player on current form in Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White.

A few weeks ago I thought it would be a long shot for Gibbs-White to make the squad, but his recent form for me makes him almost impossible not to select. There’s a few here that won’t be involved in the final 26-man squad though.

Midfielders who will probably make the final squad: 5/7

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Attackers:

A couple of clear picks here, firstly in captain Harry Kane, and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka. They’ll be joined by Marcus Rashford, who likely completes Tuchel’s first choice front 3 if everybody is fit.

4 spots left now - Aston Villa pair Morgan Rogers & Ollie Watkins both make the squad based on data. Watkins may be the one here who could miss out, with him not being in favour since Tuchel took charge.

Danny Welbeck is another striker who should be picked based on data - I find his selection to be very unlikely though, which is a shame for him as I think he’d be a perfect type of player to have on the bench considering his experience and talent.

The last spot was the one that was the closest battle amongst a few wide players - the winner on this occasion is Newcastle’s Harvey Barnes. In this idea of the squad, he’d provide good back up to Marcus Rashford on the left, and a slightly different playing profile too.

Attackers who will probably make the final squad: 4/7

What we end up with then, is a fairly well-balanced squad with some pretty big surprises. It’s a young squad - especially in midfield, where we might well see someone like Jordan Henderson make it on the plane for his leadership and experience. I’d also be surprised to see Tuchel take 3 out and out strikers.

The players who came very close to making this particular squad include some familiar names who we will likely see in the squad on Friday, but some other surprises too!

• Lewis Hall

• Jayden Bogle

• Dan Burn

• Trevoh Chalobah

• Curtis Jones

• Cole Palmer

• Ebere Eze

• Jarrod Bowen

• Noni Madueke

• Dominic Calvert-Lewin

Total amount of players who will probably make the final squad: 15/26

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